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News Release

Millennials, Minorities Most Optimistic About Small Business Growth in 2017

Yelp Reveals Findings of Second Annual Small Business Pulse Survey

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 10, 2017--
Yelp, Inc. (NYSE:YELP), the company that connects people with great
local businesses, today released its second annual Small Business Pulse
Survey, finding that nearly 90% of American small businesses active on
Yelp expect their revenues to grow in 2016, estimating an increase of
31% growth in the year ahead, up from last
year’s survey.

Findings show Millennial respondents and minority-owned businesses are
most optimistic about 2017. On average, Millennial respondents project
69% more revenue growth than their older counterparts for 2017, and
minority-owned businesses project 49% more revenue growth than
white-owned businesses for 2017.

Reflecting on 2016

The majority (68%) of Yelp-listed small businesses feel their business’
performance met or exceeded expectations in 2016. As a long and divisive
presidential election came to a head last year, we asked respondents how
the political climate impacted their business. White business owners
were 28% more likely to say it had a negative impact on their business
than minority business owners. Also, more Millennial respondents said
the 2016 political climate had a positive effect on their business
compared to other age groups.

Political Implications

There are many political topics already being debated by the new
Congress that could impact small businesses, such as healthcare reform,
minimum wage increases and tax restructuring. When asked what the top
focuses should be for President-Elect Trump, in order to support small
businesses, Yelp-listed small businesses said reducing regulatory burden
for small businesses (44%), followed by reducing the complexity of the
tax code (31%) and ensuring small businesses have access to capital
(28%).

“Regulation, while it can create challenges for small businesses, also
ensures that businesses provide a safe and efficient environment for
customers and employees,” says Shannon Eis, Yelp’s Small Business
Advocate. “The survey respondents seem optimistic about the work
policymakers have promised will streamline regulation for small
businesses, and potentially will ease regulatory burdens by having more
targeted policies,” she continued. “Yelp has been part of efforts to
make regulation more efficient, like our collaboration with academicians
and the city of Boston to focus
restaurant health code inspections on restaurants that are most
likely to have a violation.”

Challenges in 2017

While the data shows that businesses are generally optimistic about
2017, respondents did cite their biggest perceived challenges for the
year ahead. The majority of businesses (57%) said attracting and
retaining customers is going to be their biggest challenge in 2017,
followed by managing a limited marketing budget (35%), competition from
larger businesses (31%), and attracting and retaining employees (25%).

“Online reviews have allowed small businesses that offer great value and
service to compete
with national chains, and Yelp provides a free platform on which
businesses can market their offerings,” Eis says. “Additionally, a study
by the Boston Consulting Group shows that small businesses with a free
Yelp business owner’s account saw an average of $8,000 in annual revenue
from Yelp, and advertisers benefit nearly three times as much,
generating average annual revenues from Yelp of more than $23,000.”

Feedback Economy

Nearly all survey respondents (96%) report they collect customer
feedback in some form. Two in three businesses (68%) collect feedback
from online review sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor, though that
number varies depending on the business category:

Although Yelp’s 2016 survey
found that 74% of business owners use social media as a digital
marketing tool, this year’s findings show that just 2% percent of
business owners report gathering customer feedback from social media
sites like Facebook or Twitter. “Many business owners tell us how much
time they spend trying to promote their business on social media,” Eis
say, “but when it comes to collecting useful and actionable feedback to
help improve and grow their business, most business owners rely on
review sites like Yelp.”

Methodology

The Yelp Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research (www.wakefieldresearch.com)
among 1,191 Yelp-listed small businesses between December 6th and
December 16th, 2016, using an email invitation and an online survey.

Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude
of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of
interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. For
the interviews conducted in this particular study, the chances are 95 in
100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 2.8
percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews
had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the
sample.

About Yelp

Yelp
Inc. (NYSE: YELP) connects people with great local businesses. Yelp
was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp communities
have taken root in major metros across 32 countries. By the end of Q3
2016, Yelpers had written approximately 115 million rich, local reviews,
making Yelp the leading local guide for real word-of-mouth on everything
from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists. Approximately
25 million unique devices* accessed Yelp via the Yelp app, approximately
72 million unique visitors visited Yelp via mobile web** and
approximately 77 million unique visitors visited Yelp via desktop*** on
a monthly average basis during the Q3 2016. For more information, please
visit http://www.yelp.com
or send an email to press@yelp.com.

* Calculated as the number of unique devices accessing the app on a
monthly average basis over a given three-month period, according to
internal Yelp logs.

** Calculated as the number of "users," as measured by Google Analytics,
accessing Yelp via mobile website on a monthly average basis over a
given three-month period.

*** Calculated as the number of "users," as measured by Google
Analytics, accessing Yelp via desktop computer on an average monthly
basis over a given three-month period.